Measures to Improve the Ease of Doing Business
Simplification of Tax Procedures in Finance Bill 2015
By TN Ashok Economics Editor
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced measures to improve the ease of doing business so as to achieve ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’.
Presenting the Union Budget for 2015-16 in Parliament, Jaitley sought to bring about simplification of tax procedures in the Financial Bill 2015. Monetary limits for a case to be heard by a single member bench of ITAT is proposed to be increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. The proposed amendments in the Income-tax Act provide that:
- Penalty provision in indirect taxes are being rationalized to encourage compliance and early dispute resolution.
- Central excise/ Service tax assesses to be allowed to use digitally signed invoices and maintain record electronically.
- Wealth-tax replaced with additional surcharge of 2 per cent on super rich with a taxable income of over Rs 1 crore annually.
- Provision of indirect transfers in the Income-tax Act suitably cleaned up.
- Applicability of indirect transfer provisions to dividends paid by foreign companies to their shareholders to be addressed through a clarificatory circular.
- Domestic transfer pricing threshold limit increased from Rs 5 crore to Rs 20 crore.
- MAT rationalized for FIIs and members of an AOP.
- Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) recommendations to be appropriately implemented during the course of the year.
- Education cess and the Secondary and Higher education cess to be subsumed in Central Excise Duty.
- Specific rates of central excise duty in case of certain other commodities revised.
- Excise levy on cigarettes and the compounded levy scheme applicable to pan masala, gutkha and other tobacco products also changed.
- Excise duty on footwear with leather uppers and having retail price of more than Rs 1000 per pair reduced to 6 %.
- Online central excise and service tax registration to be done in two working days.
- Time limit for taking CENVAT credit on inputs and input services increased from 6 months to 1 year.
- Service-tax plus education cesses increased from 12.36% to 14% to facilitate transition to GST.
- Donation made to National Fund for Control to Drug Abuse (NFCDA) to be eligible for 100% deduction u/s 80G of Income-tax Act.
· Seized cash can be adjusted towards assesses tax liability.
